Deus Ex Machinae

Machinae Supremacy meets Path of Radiance in a battle to save a town divided...

Stepping into the fire...

Tai and Nick, with their randomly recruited new ally, Jalen, awoke in the ruins with some new trinkets to mess around with. As they returned to the small village, they discovered an unusual sight: the small, peaceful village they had left not long ago had turned into a rather large city surrounded by a wall of stone. Inside the city, they quickly discoverd that it was split into three sections: the neutral merchant area of Relin-Kahl, the aristocratic wealthy are of Dariss, and the slums of Gul.

A little sniffing around led them to Gul where they heard of a band of rebels opposing Dariss. They eventually found the rebels’ hideout and entered to find the group consisted mostly of laguz (a breed of human-like creatures that actually have the ability to transform into animals) and Branded (those born to a laguz parent and a beorc [any non-laguz] parent). The rebel group had formed to fight the ruling power in Dariss that persecuted them for being “subhuman.”

The leader of the Gul rebels, Raix, then enlisted the help of the trio. He explained the plan: they were going to sneak into Dariss and destroy an important public building. He also explained that he had a man on the inside who would keep the civilians out of their way – they may be rebels, but they don’t kill innocent civilians after all.

The three then split up: Nick and Jalen joined up with one of the rebels to distract the guards at the gate between Gul and Dariss while Tai followed Raix and another rebel into the city to the building. The first group had some difficulties as they continued into the city to keep the path clear for the others. However, they were saved by their rebel ally, one with some ability in…some sort of healing magic. Meanwhile, Raix and Tai finally reached the target location, set up their…”unique surprise,” and escaped – with a few magical trinkets as well.

Unfortunately, for all their hard work, they weren’t all able to escape. The explosion was heard across Dariss, and guards suddenly appeared as if from everywhere. Raix and his rebels, as well as Nick, managed to escape, but Tai and Jalen were captured…

The journey begins...

The two travelers, who have excessively long names and will therefore be referred to as Tai and Nick, came to a small town where they were both wronged – Tai had his sledgehammer and book stolen and Nick was simply attacked. They discovered that they were both wronged by the same young boy. Asking around town, they found out that this boy was generally distrusted by the people of the town, that he had always seemed rather sullen but never violent, that he seems to have some sort of hideout in the woods to the north, and that his name is Zel…

With Tai’s excellent nose (him being part-fox and all) and Nick’s tracking skills, they were easily able to find the ruined building that was the boy’s hideout. Inside, they found him having what appeared to be an internal struggle. Tai approached him, but the boy ran off into a hole in the ground, leaving behind Tai’s gear. Picking up the sledgehammer and book, the two continued down the staircase underground…

Beneath the ruins, they found a large cavern with a narrow path snaking along the wall into the darkness. To their right, there was a large pool. They noticed that their reflections looked like twisted, sinister versions of themselves. Tai looked deeper into the water to notice what appeared to be bodies floating in the water…

Continuing on, the pair came to a disturbing gateway with a distorted image between the two stone pillars. Stepping through, they found themselves in the center of a large spotlight on the ground. Beyond the edges of the light, there was nothing but pure darkness…

From the darkness, three shapes crawled into the light. They looked like goblins, but were incredibly emaciated and seemed to be covered in a dark aura. The duo skillfully fought off these creatures and another wave appeared. Once again, they dispatched this group with ease, and a third group crawled from the darkness. Nick appeared to be in trouble but Tai single-handedly destroyed the three.

After the last of the goblns was killed, the young boy stumbled out from the darkness, gripping his head and screaming in agony. Suddenly, a dark shape emerged from his back and slowly pulled away from him until it separated from him. He collapsed to the ground, alive but unconscious, and the players were faced with a threatening foe…

The duo defeated the shadow through teamwork and a little bit of luck and noticed that the boy was gone. The light on the floor began to grow brighter and brighter until it engulfed them completely. The two then awoke on the ground in the ruins, each with a strange black band around their arm…these “radiance bands” each had a “radiant art” attached to it. Tai obtained Celerity, increasing his speed of movement. Nick obtained Savior, allowing him to carry a lot of weight without being weighed down by it. They also grew stronger from their encounter with the goblins and the shadow.

A blog for your campaign

While the wiki is great for organizing your campaign world, it’s not the best way to chronicle your adventures. For that purpose, you need a blog!

The Adventure Log will allow you to chronologically order the happenings of your campaign. It serves as the record of what has passed. After each gaming session, come to the Adventure Log and write up what happened. In time, it will grow into a great story!

Best of all, each Adventure Log post is also a wiki page! You can link back and forth with your wiki, characters, and so forth as you wish.

One final tip: Before you jump in and try to write up the entire history for your campaign, take a deep breath. Rather than spending days writing and getting exhausted, I would suggest writing a quick “Story So Far” with only a summary. Then, get back to gaming! Grow your Adventure Log over time, rather than all at once.